Harman Patil (Editor)

Nîmes–Alès–Camargue–Cévennes Airport

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Airport type
  
Public / Military

Location
  
Saint-Gilles / Garons

Website
  
www.nimes-aeroport.fr

Elevation
  
94 m

Serves
  
Nîmes, Gard, France

Elevation AMSL
  
309 ft / 94 m

Code
  
FNI

Phone
  
+33 4 66 70 49 49

Nîmes–Alès–Camargue–Cévennes Airport

Operator
  
SNC-Lavalin / Ministère de la Défense (FNF)

Address
  
30800 Saint-Gilles, France

Nîmes Airport or Nîmes–Alès–Camargue–Cévennes Airport (French: Aéroport de Nîmes-Alès-Camargue-Cévennes) (IATA: FNI, ICAO: LFTW) is an airport located 9 km (4.9 NM) south-southeast of the city of Nîmes, in the village of Saint-Gilles near Garons. It is also known as Garons Airport or Nîmes Garons Airport. The airport serves the Provence region, including the communes of Nîmes and Alès in the Gard department, the Camargue area and the Cévennes.

Contents

It currently has some commercial services, operated by Irish carrier Ryanair, however it also serves as a naval air base.

Facilities

The airport resides at an elevation of 309 feet (94 m) above mean sea level. It has one paved runway designated 18/36 which measures 2,443 by 45 metres (8,015 ft × 148 ft).

Controversy

In April 2012, the European Commission announced that it had launched an in-depth investigation into the financial arrangements that Nîmes Airport had with public authorities and Ryanair. The investigation would determine if public subsidies given to the airport, as well as rebates and marketing agreements with Ryanair, breached EU rules on state aid. The Commission announced that it would examine the following issues:

  • whether public subsidies of over €2 million and cash advances totalling over €9 million received by the Chamber of Commerce between 2000 and 2006 and public subsidies received by Veolia Transport since 2007 covered their ordinary operating expenses as airport operators, thereby giving them an undue economic advantage over competitors.
  • whether agreements (such as marketing support contracts and discounts on airport charges) between the airport operators and Ryanair would have been contracted by a market economy investor and, if not, Ryanair would have been receiving an undue economic advantage that its competitors do not enjoy.
  • whether part of the aid received by the airport operators had been passed on to Ryanair.

    • In response to the announcement, Ryanair maintained that its 'arrangements with all EU airports comply with competition rules'.

    References

    Nîmes–Alès–Camargue–Cévennes Airport Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA